No Sympathy For The Devil
by KRenee
Summary: Sasuke never finished his battle with Itachi and he didn't make it back to Team Hebi, either. No, he's under the care of a sadistic homunculus that was never supposed to see the light of day. If he doesn't speak, he won't get hurt. If he does what he's told, he's "rewarded". He just has to follow the rules until he can get away. No problem... right? Trigger warnings inside.
1. Chapter 1

**TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR:** _conditioning, Stockholm Syndrome, rape/non-con, M/M, PTSD, graphic violence/torture, trauma_

* * *

 _ **i**_ **.**

When Sasuke opened his eyes, it was dark out. There was a source of light to his left, and he was lying on something hard and unforgiving, painful against the various bruises and cuts scattered all over his body. It felt rocky. Perhaps the floor of a cave or something. He was sore all over. He tried to shift against the rocks into a more comfortable position, and found that his movement was being restricted by something.

Rope.

He cursed internally, wriggling in his bonds and trying to loosen the knots. His wrists were bound together behind his back, and his ankles had been secured as well. Who was it? Was it Naruto? No, Naruto wouldn't have left him alone. Sasuke didn't sense any other presences in the vicinity, so if he could get the ropes off he'd be able to escape.

But the rope wasn't budging. He was beginning to think that maybe it was some kind of special rope or something when he heard a pair of heavy footsteps crunch against the rocky floor. He hadn't sensed them approaching at all. He twisted awkwardly to see his captor as they walked up to the fire, never even sparing him a glance. For a moment, he was expecting it to be Itachi.

It was a man. His hair was long and white, held together loosely in a ponytail that reminded Sasuke violently of his late brother. When he finally glanced away from the fire he'd been stirring and looked to Sasuke, the Uchiha was met with cobalt blue eyes that showed nothing but disinterest.

 _If you're not_ _ **interested**_ _, you should_ _ **let me go**_ _._

Sasuke glowered at the stranger, "Who are you?" He snarled. "Untie me."

Those piercing blue eyes just stared at him for a moment, before the man returned his attention to the fire. There was a long silence, and Sasuke was getting more and more furious by the second. Was he being ignored? This low-life piece of-...

"Teara." Was the response he finally got. Sasuke's glare intensified.

"Untie me." He repeated. Teara didn't answer him. Sasuke tilted his head back against the rocks beneath him, staring at the roof of the cave as he twisted his wrists, trying to angle them so he could use a jutsu to get out of his current bind.

"Stop that." Teara suddenly said, and when Sasuke looked over at him, he met the white-haired man's gaze. It was smoldering, and if Sasuke had been much of anyone else, he might've shrank back and been nicely cowed. Instead, he only got angrier. Who the hell did this guy think he was? Once Sasuke got out of the rope binding his arms, the bastard would be _dead_.

Flatly refusing to stop struggling, he continued trying to twist his wrists into an angle he could work with, pointedly not replying. He was beginning to make what felt like it might've been the beginnings of progress when Teara moved suddenly. Sasuke looked over at him again, seeing that he had stood up and was staring down at the Uchiha as if he were less appealing than a slug.

Sasuke scowled darkly, "Untie me and let me go." He spat venomously, "If you don't, you're gonna regret it when I get out of this."

Teara just stared at him, his gaze icy, for a long moment. Sasuke didn't look away, though after about twenty seconds he found himself wanting to. He refused to give in, however, and continued to glare at the man who had confined him

Abruptly, Teara stooped forward, giving Sasuke only enough time to start shifting away before he had grasped a handful of the Uchiha's black hair. Sasuke yelped in pain when Teara yanked his head off the ground, quickly following the undignified sound with a slew of even-less-dignified curses. The grip on his hair tightened, pulling at his scalp where it was already straining plenty as it was.

"You just couldn't keep your mouth shut and sit still, could you?" Teara said frostily. "You'll regret it."

"Fuck you!" Sasuke snarled in response, trying to find a way to brace himself against the floor so he wasn't being held up by his hair. There really wasn't any way, though. Not with how his arms and ankles were bound. "Fuck you and whatever _fucking_ hole you crawled out of!"

" _Shut up_."

The next thing he knew, Teara yanked on his hair again, pulling him further off the ground, and then slammed his skull into the ground. Sasuke's whole body jerked in response to the immediate pain, before going limp. His eyes stared at the stars floating around in his field of vision, and he tried to say something insulting and angry, but the words that came out of his mouth were completely incoherent. He made a thin sound of defeat, and darkness swallowed him whole.

...

"Hang on a second, Naruto!" Kiba's called, and Naruto stopped on one of the strong branches they had been jumping through on their search for Sasuke. The blond looked back to Kiba, who was looking around with a very serious expression on his face. Akamaru barked, turning eastward briefly before looking back at Kiba.

"Yea, me too, bud." He replied to the animal before turning back to Naruto. "I can smell him. Sasuke, I mean."

Sakura, who had stopped on the branch directly behind Naruto's, stared at Kiba in surprise and maybe a little bit of disbelief. She looked over at her and Naruto's sensei, Kakashi. The silver-haired man was watching Kiba attentively as he asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yea," Kiba said. "Positive. The trail is kind of faint, but its coming from that-a-way." He pointed in the same direction Akamaru had been indicating moments earlier.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, "Lead the way, Kiba!"

The dog-boy nodded, turning to the east and taking off. Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi were right behind him, none of them falling more than one step behind the other. They moved quickly, scanning the area as they went for any signs of hostile movement. Sasuke had last been seen traveling with three other people, and while Kiba hadn't mentioned any other scents, it was wise to assume that there could be three highly dangerous people with the Uchiha.

Naruto's gut churned with apprehension. He'd been disappointed on the Search For Sasuke so many times so far, he didn't know if he wanted to hope for the best or just assume the worst. He didn't want to sound like a pessimist, but he had begun to lose faith in his own abilities lately, specifically because Sasuke was so elusive. Whenever they were _almost there_ , something would interfere, someone would get in the way, _something_ would happen to prevent them from catching up.

It was really just a wild goose chase. Maybe he'd never catch up. Maybe Sasuke would always elude him. Maybe Sasuke would never return to Konoha. If Kaisuki continued to refuse to help him, it was extremely possible.

But he tried not to let such thoughts dishearten him. He would try as long as he could, and keep up his hopeful facade.

...

His level of discomfort was close to pain.

Sasuke shifted slightly, wincing at the strain on his shoulders. He tried to twist his hand so he could get a feel for the texture of the rope that was binding his forearms behind his back, only to find that it felt like his fingers were taped together. He wouldn't be able to make hand seals. If he couldn't make hand seals, he was going to have a very hard time getting out of the rope, assuming it was possible at all. It felt like his arms were well-secured. He couldn't reach the knot at all, and the rope felt tough and thick. It'd take weeks for him to get through it with a fingernail.

His ankles were equally secured, and he'd been gagged and blindfolded. He shifted again, grunting slightly as he sat upright, finding a wall and leaning against it. He was much more comfortable sitting up. He wriggled a bit, but he really just couldn't get out of this particular mess he'd gotten himself into. He huffed angrily. Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo would likely be looking for him, and Karin was a sensory-type kunoichi. Eventually, she would be able to sense his chakra, and then they would be on the way.

He didn't know how long that would take, though.

Judging by the hard, flat surface he was leaning on, he could figure that he was in a room. That was about all he could conclude, though. The blindfold was pretty thick, though he could see a bit of light from underneath it. The angle was bad, so he couldn't see anything if he tried to look through said sliver of space between his cheeks and the edge of the blindfold, but he could tell that it was day if he cracked his eyes open.

Internally cursing his predicament, he leaned his head against the wall. That man... Teara didn't seem to be around. He didn't know where the bastard had gone off to, but he could imagine that he'd probably be back soon. Well, maybe not _soon_ , but likely within the next few hours. He wouldn't have gone far when his prisoner could potentially escape at any moment.

Sasuke let out a sigh through his nose. Who was he kidding? He wasn't going anywhere unless someone found him. All he could really do was hope that it wasn't Naruto.

...

The cave was huge, but it didn't go very far back. The four of them were standing in the back of the cave, Naruto staring at the remains of a fire. Kiba was sniffing around the cave, looking more and more bewildered by the second. The blond was guessing that that was bad news.

The dog-boy looked over at him briefly, frowning deeply before returning to his task. Kakashi was also walking around the huge cavern, looking around and evidently searching for more clues. Sakura stood beside Naruto, silent as the grave. It was beginning to look like they had somehow lost Sasuke's trail.

"What the hell, man," Kiba suddenly groaned. Naruto looked up at him, suddenly feeling extremely tired of the whole charade. "Like, the scent _definitely_ comes in here, and the source of that scent _obviously_ doesn't stay here, but this is the end of the trail. Like, what the hell? Did he teleport? Can he do that? Do you know if his new teammates can do that?"

Sakura looked downcast. Kakashi looked like he'd already known that answer, and considering he had a nose almost as good as an Inuzuka, Naruto wasn't surprised. The blond resisted the strong urge to sigh loudly, instead turning back to the mouth of the cave.

"Well, there isn't anything left for us here, right?" Naruto asked quietly, deciding not to even try jokingly answering Kiba's question. "Let's go. Maybe we can figure out which way he went from outside."

Sakura hummed in agreement, and the rest of the mismatched team stepped out into the light. The sun was shining overhead, but the threat of a thunderstorm loomed in the distance. They were going to have to set up shop somewhere for the night soon.

He didn't want to risk the storm destroying any evidence of where Sasuke had gone, but he didn't really want to lead them too far from this cave, since they didn't know if they'd see another one for miles.

Despite Naruto's reservations, they spent nearly an hour looking for some kind of a clue, and didn't find anything around the cave. They'd looked everywhere around that cave, and there was _nothing_. As the rain started to fall, they retreated back into the cave that Sasuke had been in, and set up a small camp in the back.

"Do you think it was just a false trail?" Sakura asked quietly. Naruto didn't reply immediately, instead staring at the fire. It was chilly that night. He was wrapped up in a blanket, his cloak, and he was still dressed, and he was still cold. The fire was helping a lot, but he wanted to be closer to it. He crossed his legs and scooted forward, holding his hands up to the source of heat and light.

"False trails don't usually just end like that," Kiba explained. "They had to get that scent here somehow. If they walked here and then doubled back, the trail would've gone in two separate directions, with this one being a dead end and the other one leading to the real Sasuke.

"If they'd tied something that smelled like him to a bird or a squirrel like they did that one time, that bird or squirrel would have kept the trail going. There's no way it was a false trail," The dog-boy said conclusively. "But I don't know how the trail just disappeared like that. It's crap."


	2. Chapter 2

**LONG AS FUCK A/N:** Some kind albeit unnecessarily rude individual pointed out to me that I made no mention of my OC being in this story. Sorry, I literally forgot when I posted the first chapter that she was in the story; litera _l fucking_ moment of amnesia. TBH I was not intending to publish this story. I changed my mind, however, when it started to come out pretty awesome and then forgot when I posted it that I needed to mention that there's an OC "around" in the story. Well, technically five... villain, Kaisuki & company.

If you want to learn about Kaisuki, you can either read the following or read _Beneath a Steel Sky_. _Beneath a Steel Sky_ 's not my greatest work (I'm going to rewrite it, actually, so it matches the fucking sequel) but it can serve as a more in-depth explanation as to who Kaisuki is. If you don't feel like reading it, once again, you can just read the following.

 **I'm not going to take the time to introduce Kaisuki's WHOLE story, I'm just going to tell you a the basics NOW so you're not all pissed off** **later** (likethatcommentercoughcough):

 **SPOILER ALERT FOR: _Beneath a Steel Sky_ & _Within an Endless Night_**

Kaisuki is a thing I made up called a Yurei; she carries a couple spirits of the dead because it's a trait of Yurei which are a weird thing that the Tsubaki clan produces (made that up too); there's three spirits in her, along with her own, and they're all chicks - Khrai, Izumi, and Saeka, in order from who died first to who died last. There are a few other Tsubaki left but they're basically all in hiding for historical reasons that I won't get into. Let's just say, countries took advantage of their abilities during the last two wars.

Teara is actually a character who is originally also from _Beneath a Steel Sky_ , but nothing - **NOTHING** \- from the plot OR world of that story carries over to this story. Teara's name, Kaisuki, Izumi, Khrai, and Saeka and anything that HAS to change with the ladies' presence are the only similarities. In a nutshell, Kaisuki **was** on Team 7 (she didn't replace anyone) and now she's a wanderer out in the world because Naruto and Sakura disowned her when she refused to help them hunt down Sasuke, who she knew from childhood but they're... estranged. Like everyone else in Sasuke's world LOL. She visits home about once every six months. Every other detail about _Beneath a Steel Sky_ is 100% irrelevant.

* * *

 ** _ii._**

He was going to dehydrate to death. He was just going to expire in this stupid room for a stupid reason. He was pretty sure that he'd either been forgotten or simply abandoned for the sake of a slow death. Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu weren't going to find him in time. Naruto wasn't going to find him in time, either. He was going to die.

Fear kept his heart rate elevated, and the adrenaline was burning through calories. He hadn't eaten in three days. The pain from his hunger was excruciating. On the bright side, he was able to get comfortable enough to fall asleep for short periods of time if he stayed sitting upright. He'd eventually slide over and wake up laying down again, but at least he was able to sleep. If he couldn't have slept, he would probably have been going insane at that point.

It didn't really matter, though. It only took three days for the human body to dehydrate to death. He would be dead before he could actually lose it.

He leaned his head against the wall. His neck and back and shoulders were _killing_ him. He'd had his arms tied tightly behind his back for three days, and he was sure that he was sporting bruises by this point. There was no truly comfortable position he could get into. There was no way for him to sit or lay that didn't hurt.

He hadn't been this miserable in a long time.

He flinched violently when he heard what sounded like someone undoing a lock. He couldn't sense anything outside of the room, apparently. Or else he would have sensed the approach of whoever that was. There was a metallic sound, and then a wooden door sliding open. He still couldn't sense who that was. Was it the _rope_?

The door was slid shut again. Sasuke found that he was biting down on the gag. Who was that? If it had been Naruto, he would've greeted Sasuke much louder. The same went for Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo. It had to be Teara. So the bastard had come back, then? Why? Was he not planning on leaving Sasuke to die? Or had he shown up to witness the Uchiha's final hours of suffering?

 _You piece of_ _ **shit**_ _._

Footsteps approached at that point, but whoever it was, they didn't speak. He was beginning to grow anxious. Was that Teara? He didn't know what he was going to think or do if it wasn't. Were they here to kill him? Were they here to hurt him? Were they here to save him? Or were they just here to prolong his life?

 _Was_ it Teara?

He hadn't spoken much when Sasuke had first met him, so he wouldn't be surprised to find that it _was_ the white-haired man. That didn't make him feel any better. At all. His heart was racing and it was hard to remember to breathe.

The footsteps stopped right in front of him, and Sasuke heard the rustle of fabric as they likely knelt down in front of him. He heard something being put down – sounded like a paper bag and … was that a cup? A jug?

His immediate thought was _water_. He didn't want to get his hopes up though, lest he be horribly disappointed.

"If you make a sound," that was definitely Teara. He recognized the voice immediately and he stiffened. "I'm going to hurt you."

 _Fuck_ _ **you**_ _._ Sasuke thought venomously. He couldn't sense Teara's chakra, but he could feel his presence moving closer and he instinctively pushed himself into the wall. _Stay away from me, you fucking-_...

"I'm taking off the gag. Don't move."

Sasuke resisted the urge to bite down on the cloth so the sadistic bastard couldn't get it off. He felt Teara's cold hands touch his face and flinched before he could stop himself. He let out an angry huff through his nose as Teara reached behind his head and undid the knot. It seemed like it wasn't tied all that securely, which infuriated him. He'd tried to get that stupid gag off a thousand and one times, yet Teara had barely touched it and it'd come right off. What the _hell_?

Teara pulled the gag away and Sasuke immediately swallowed, trying to wet his parched throat. It did not help. In fact, if anything, it made his throat feel drier. He heard the rustle of what he was now positive was a paper bag and a scent filled his nostrils. His stomach clenched and he ground his teeth together, trying to quell his body's _obnoxious_ physical reaction.

He then heard the sound of a drink being poured. Teara probably _was_ here to prolong his life. He had no idea why. Maybe he was just planning on letting the Uchiha suffer as long as possible... but he hadn't even hurt him aside from knocking him out that one time.

 _Why are you doing this, again?_

His throat was so dry he couldn't speak, but he wanted to.

He jerked back when something cold touched his lips, alarmed. He opened his mouth to say something, even though his throat was way too dry to produce sound, but Teara cut him off. " _Shut up._ It's water."

He froze. He wanted that. He definitely wanted water. He didn't want to have Teara helping him drink it, though. He didn't want to be relying on Teara for anything. He didn't want Teara to be anywhere near him, in fact.

However, if he didn't take the offer, he was going to be dead within another day or two. Hesitantly and begrudgingly, he nodded slightly, just once, and parted his lips. The cool glass came back, tilting water into his mouth. He drank the whole glass in one go, gasping once he'd finished it.

Teara didn't say anything at all. There was the rustling of the paper bag again and Sasuke was reasonably certain he could smell onigiri. He was irritated that the only thing he'd been brought was onigiri, but he supposed that was better than nothing at all.

He tried to pretend that he wasn't completely humiliated, but he definitely was.

Something soft and slightly sticky was pressed to his lips and he started, but recognized the texture as rice. So it was onigiri. Hopefully more than just the one, because that was not going to be enough calories to keep him going for long. He opened his mouth and allowed the morsel of food to be fed to him, feeling his face heating up.

He was given two onigiri, and then another glass of water, and then another two onigiri, and that was it. When he realized he wasn't getting any more, he was immediately furious and he immediately wanted to cry. He was still _starving_. He swallowed hard, listening to Teara doing... something. Probably putting things away. It sounded like he had a bag of some sort. Was he going to leave again? _Already_?

"If you keep behaving, maybe I'll bring you an extra one in the future."

He couldn't stand it any longer and he'd already been given as much as he was going to be given, so he threw all caution to the winds. " _Fuck you_!" He snarled furiously, pulling at the ropes even though he knew they weren't going to budge. "I'm going to _slaughter_ you when I get out of this, you piece of fucking _shit!_ "

He didn't get a verbal reply or any other kind of warning before Teara backhanded him so hard his head swung to the side and he felt his lip split. He could taste blood immediately. Teara grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking _hard_ to the side. He let out a slew of curses alongside several sounds of pain, cursing his captor's name a hundred times in under a minute.

Teara's other hand wrapped tightly around his throat, squeezing hard enough that the Uchiha could only get in a sparse amount of air and couldn't get out any more profanity. "You really just can't follow directions, can you?" The white-haired man growled, increasing his grip until Sasuke couldn't breathe at all.

The captive tried to pull away but there was nowhere for him to go. He could hold his breath for a while but he hadn't been given an opportunity to inhale before Teara had started strangling him.

Teara withdrew the hand that had been in his hair and loosened his grip on Sasuke's throat, and the Uchiha immediately sucked in a deep breath and started coughing and gasping. He heard another metallic sound and stiffened, pressing himself against the wall even harder.

It wasn't like he was actually moving further away. He didn't even know why he was bothering.

There was absolutely no warning this time, either, aside from the sound of metal he'd heard a good minute before a searing agony split up his side, eliciting a gasp of pain followed by another slew of curses. Teara tightened his grip on Sasuke's throat again, cutting off the Uchiha airways, pushing the apparently extremely sharp blade into _bone_.

It hurt a lot more than he was prepared for, and there was literally no way for him to escape it. He couldn't move backwards, he couldn't even move to the side because of the grip Teara had on his throat. His eyes were watering and he couldn't even vocalize the amount of pain he was in. To be perfectly honest, he'd never actually been tortured before, so he was unaccustomed to being stabbed when there wasn't adrenaline coursing through his veins.

It hurt a lot more when it was off the battlefield.

Teara abruptly jerked the knife to the side and Sasuke flinched violently, which only increased the amount of moving the blade was doing. He was beginning to feel like he was going to black out from lack of oxygen when the pressure on his throat abruptly relinquished. He sucked in a deep, wheezing breath before he had even realized that he was able to.

However, the knife was still in him.

He started coughing uncontrollably, trying to take in breaths past the heaving gasps. Every time he moved, every time he _coughed_ , it jerked the blade that was still in his hip and sent a shockwave of _more pain_ up his side and down his leg and across his pelvis and just generally everywhere. He could feel the metal grinding against the bone it was embedded in and he actually couldn't hold in the series of unintelligible curses and cries of pain let out through clenched teeth.

He made a sound that was significantly less dignified than the rest, wheezing and trying to control the tremors that were starting in his shoulders. He felt sick and hot and cold and he hadn't eaten nearly enough to be expending this much calories and _blood_.

Teara ripped the knife back without a word, his hands coming off the Uchiha completely. Sasuke collapsed to his uninjured side, curling up as best he could, groaning and whimpering interchangeably. He was actively shaking and he could feel warm blood spilling out of the wound, running across his stomach, pooling underneath him.

His breathing was uneven and he was trying to correct it in an effort to distract himself from the searing agony, but it wasn't working. He didn't know how much blood he was losing but it felt like a lot. If Teara didn't stop it, he was probably going to bleed out. If he didn't bleed out, the loss of so much blood would guarantee that he dehydrated to death if he was left alone for a couple of days again.

He coughed, making a thin, weak sound.

"Are you regretting it yet?" Teara's asked, sounding bored. His voice sounded a touch farther away. Was he standing now? Or was Sasuke about to faint?

The sound that came out of this throat then sounded dangerously close to a sob and he followed it immediately with more cursing. "Fuck... you..." He ground out through clenched teeth, every breath hitching on the waves of pain splitting through him. "You fucking..."

Before he could continue with the insults, a booted foot slammed down on his injured hip and he cried out sharply in pain. Teara increased the pressure exponentially, until Sasuke was sure his hip was going to fracture. It would already be weak and unstable from having a _knife_ in it, if Teara put in enough force it would _break_ and if it broke he was really going to be screwed why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut would it kill him to refrain from baiting the guy with all the power into hurting him _fuck fuck stop get off it hurts it hurts you fucking asshole stop it it_ _ **hurts.**_ _..._

He felt something crack deep in his hip and white hot agony tore through him and Teara's heel dug in _harder_. The sounds he was making increased in volume until he was doing something between screaming and sobbing. If he hadn't been in so much pain, he probably would've been embarrassed.

The weight let up abruptly, but the pain remained long after. He choked on his breaths, coughing and gasping and whimpering, wishing that Teara would just kill him. He didn't even know what he'd done to attract this guy's attention. He didn't even know where this sadistic _fuck_ had come from. Why was he on Teara's radar? Why had he been kidnapped? Why did these things always seem to happen to him?

"How about now?" Teara's tone was nothing short of disgusted now.

If Sasuke hadn't been in such indescribable agony, he would have been furious and insulted and probably fairly ashamed of himself for being so weak. Itachi probably wouldn't have been sobbing uncontrollably on the floor. Almost definitely not, in fact, as he had been extensively trained by Konoha's Black Ops and that included a week-long period in which his brother was endlessly beaten and tortured so that, should he ever fall into the wrong hands, he would be able to keep his mouth shut.

Sasuke did not have that training.

He heard a step pretty close to right next to his head and he instinctively flinched away, which only served to make the pain in his hip flare up again. He made a thin, pained sound, trying to will himself to melt into the floor boards. He was still bleeding. Would Teara let him die if he kept being disrespectful? Maybe.

"Well?"

It felt like his heart would jump out of his chest from the fear of saying what he was about to say, but he said it anyway. "F-fuck off, you sadistic... piece of _shit_ ," he forced out, cursing his voice for wavering. Although, he supposed it didn't matter. He'd gotten his point across. That was what he cared about.

Teara grabbed a fistful of his hair and hauled him upright, forcing him to sit instead of laying down. He tried to hold in the sobs that came up his throat immediately from putting weight on his broken hip, but it was impossible. In the middle of taking in a wheezing breath through his mouth, Teara placed the gag between the rows of his teeth and pulled it taut behind his head before he could so much as turn away. He whimpered weakly, too tired and in too much pain to struggle, as the white-haired man tied the gag. It felt tighter than it had been before.

He made a thin sound in the back of his throat a split second before Teara backhanded him again, this time so hard he fell back onto his side, stunned. He could taste more blood. He shrank back as much as he could while moving as little as possible.

He wanted to be killed at this point, if for no other reason than to not be tortured. He hoped Teara could tell. If the guy hated him so much, could he not be bothered to just kill his captive and be done with it? Why was he finding it necessary to punish him like this? What had he done, exactly? How had he slighted this random stranger to the point that he wanted to do _this_?

There was an explosion of _excruciating_ agony that split through the same hip out of nowhere, sending shockwave after shockwave of nerve-splitting pain down his leg. He couldn't even tell what had happened. He couldn't even scream, really. He did, however, make a lot of noise through the gag, sobs wracking his body to the point that it was making the pain worse. He could faintly feel the blade, seemingly as far into his hip as it could go.

He thought he heard Teara stand up, but he wasn't sure until the psychopath spoke again. "Let me know when you've changed your mind."

Sasuke froze, making a sound of confusion. What was that supposed to mean? He heard footsteps moving away from him and panicked. Where was Teara going? Was he _leaving_ his captive tied up, gagged, and blindfolded with a _knife_ in his hip?! He heard the door slide open, heard it slide shut, heard the lock latching on the other side.

 _No. No no no no do not leave me here you sick son of a bitch! Don't-... don't, no, please come back, please come back, at least take this_ _ **fucking**_ _knife out, please,_ _ **please**_ _._..

He whimpered, the shaking that wracked his body showing no signs of relenting. He couldn't move. He couldn't move at all or he'd jostle that knife. The tremors by themselves were already making the pain literally unbearable. He couldn't sit up so that his shoulders weren't straining as much and he couldn't move his leg into a more comfortable position. There was absolutely nothing he could do to escape the amount of pain he was in. He couldn't even heal it himself.

His eyes spilled tears of frustration, misery, and agony from behind the blindfold.

 _Couldn't be bothered to just kill me, could you?_

.

 _When he opened his eyes, he was in a hospital._

 _He groaned, pressing a hand to his forehead. He felt sick and his hip was aching._

" _Sasuke?" He winced at the familiar voice and turned to stare at his once-teammate, Naruto. The blond was staring at him with wide eyes, looking nervous. Sakura was sitting beside him, looking as though she'd been crying, but she didn't speak._

 _He was too tired to be angry that he'd been brought back to Konoha. Kakashi was leaning against the window behind Naruto and Sakura, his one watchful eye scrutinizing Sasuke carefully. After a moment of thought, Sasuke realized that Kaisuki wasn't there, and it immediately struck him as odd._

 _Sasuke turned his gaze away from them. He felt guilty for some reason, but he was distracted from it by pain. The sharp throbbing in his hip was worsening with every passing second and his shoulders, neck, and back were aching. He didn't know how long he'd been unconscious. He felt like it was strange that he'd been moved so much and hadn't roused._

 _The silence stretched. No one said anything. Sasuke didn't want to speak, so he closed his eyes. His stomach was twisting and he felt hot and cold at the same time. Had they deemed him not worthy of a transfusion? He'd probably lost enough blood for it._

 _Abruptly, Kakashi spoke, his voice lowered, his tone twisted into something malicious. Something that didn't sound right. "Have you learned your lesson yet?"_

 _It wasn't even the right voice. Sasuke turned back to his old mentor, alarmed. Kakashi's smoldering gaze bore into him, his expression nothing short of disgusted._

"Wake up."

A blindingly sharp jolt of pain was what roused him. Sasuke cried out through the gag, startled and frightened and in _agony_. He couldn't see anything. There was no hospital. That had been a dream. Immediately, he wanted to start crying again, but he forced himself to hold it in. He wouldn't cry from emotional distress. He probably couldn't help crying from the pain, but he would be _damned_ if he gave this bastard the pleasure of seeing him broken.

He didn't know how long he'd been unconscious, but it seemed to be darker out. Actually, the light in the room seemed awfully dim, even for sunset. It had to be night, then, and Teara had probably brought a lantern.

Sasuke flinched, cringing away when he felt a pair of fingers press against his throat. Was Teara checking his pulse? He made a weak sound of confusion, noting that he was still shaking. It didn't feel like that knife was still in his hip, though. That must've been what woke him up – Teara ripping it out. His whole side felt hot and angry and he could just barely feel fresh blood spilling out of it. He felt ill. He had to have lost a lot of blood at that point. Teara had first shown up in the earliest hours of the morning, and now it was dark out. That told him enough all by itself.

He groaned.

"Have you learned your lesson yet?" Teara asked, his tone exactly the same as Kakashi's had been in his dream. Sasuke shivered. He was freezing and he was thirsty and he was tired and he was _hungry_.

He was just managing to regulate his breathing again when Teara grabbed him by the hair again, twisting until he rolled onto his back, which jostled his hip to the point that his eyes started to water beneath the blindfold again. Teara's hand was still wrapped up in his hair when he felt a hand curl around his throat, a threatening amount of pressure being applied.

"You won't get another chance after this and I have no intention of killing you." The white-haired man hissed menacingly. Sasuke whimpered before he could stop himself, breathing shallowly. " _Do you understand me_?"

Sasuke shuddered, but didn't make any noise or movement in reply. His eyes were spilling tears of pain and his hip was throbbing and burning. He didn't want to be tortured into obedience. He didn't want to be tortured at all. The past twelve hours had been bad enough, and Teara had only been physically present for half an hour of it. He didn't believe for a second that he would've made it through if Teara had been there the whole time, continuously finding new and improved ways to drill pain into his bones.

He didn't want to give Teara that victory either, though. He didn't want to just give up and give in and let the bastard do whatever he wanted while he waited for _someone_ to find him. He didn't want to be forced to put his pride and dignity aside as a means of protecting himself from harm. He wasn't that weak, was he?

 _Itachi wouldn't have given in._

His heart was hammering in his throat. He didn't know what to do.

It seemed that he was taking too long to make up his mind, though, because Teara pulled his one hand out of Sasuke's hair and wrapped his fingers around the Uchiha's injured hip instead, digging his fingers in. The searing pain that ricocheted through him very nearly paralyzed him and he bit down hard on the gag, screaming into the cloth. Teara dug his thumb directly into the original, scabbed over stab wound, and he could feel it reopening, could feel it tearing, and his voice cracked around the shriek that came up his throat.

Teara stopped digging, stopped moving his hand completely. Even without the movement, it burned with a white-hot, searing agony. It seemed like, every time he was thinking that maybe there wouldn't be something more painful, Teara proved him wrong. Sasuke lay there, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably, unable to steady his breathing around the noises that kept coming up his throat.

" _Well_?" The white-haired man pressed, beginning to sound irritated, shifting his thumb just slightly and sending a sharp, blazing pain down Sasuke's leg.

Before he could stop himself, Sasuke was bobbing his head rapidly, eyes streaming tears beneath the blindfold, desperate for relief. Immediately, he felt the man withdraw his hand from the wound in his hip. That action alone sent another wave of pain tearing through his nerves and he let out a loud sob through the gag. Teara let go of him and he instinctively rolled to the side and curled up into as tight a ball as he could, considering his injury and his state of being extremely well-restrained.

He'd lost before he'd even realized what he was doing.

 _Good job, Sasuke._ _ **Good job.**_

He just reminded himself forcibly that he wouldn't be able to get away if half the bones in his body were broken. He wouldn't be able to escape if he couldn't walk. It would be better to do what he was told and behave himself until help arrived or he found an out.

He whimpered. His hip was still on fire.

He jerked away when Teara's hand touched his hip again, letting out a muffled, pleading sound that he hadn't meant to make.

"Stop moving." The white-haired man commanded. Sasuke made a weak noise as he felt that hand return. The touch was gentle, this time. It didn't hurt, but that didn't mean it didn't exacerbate his tremors. Teara's other hand fell on his shoulder, steadying him somewhat but not hurting him. He just left his hand there. If the guy had been anyone else, Sasuke may have found it comforting.

He felt heat envelope his hip and shifted anxiously, before he realized that the warmth he was feeling was definitely irou-ninjutsu. He could feel the wounds closing, the bone knitting back together. It stopped hurting within a few short moments, but his shaking wouldn't stop.

 _Since when am I this_ _ **weak**_ _?_

He had killed Uchiha Itachi in a fair fight. He had killed Orochimaru in a slightly less fair fight, but he'd still killed him. He could tame Juugo with no more than a flex of his chakra. He'd almost killed Naruto a number of times. He wasn't sure he could take out Kaisuki, simply because she was a _cheater_ , but he knew he could take out any other member of Team 7.

So how did this random, sadistic _fuck_ one-up him so easily?

Once the pain had fully subsided, he was left exhausted. He wanted nothing more than for Teara to go away so he could try to sleep. He was suddenly starkly aware of how horrible he felt. He was covered in a cold sweat and it felt like he was overheating, his stomach was twisting and rolling and bubbling with nausea, and he felt dizzy. He was reasonably certain the symptoms were being caused by blood loss.

A hand wrapped around his bicep and he groaned as Teara hauled him upright. He didn't even have the energy to hold his head up, so he didn't. He felt a pair of hands cup his cheeks and he winced, startled by the contact. But all Teara did was tilt his head back for some reason.

The white-haired man was still refraining from hurting him now. So, truly, all he had to do was "behave" and he wouldn't be harmed. He didn't know the full implications of "behaving," but that was something he could learn quickly.

"Very good," Teara said quietly, absolutely no warmth or affection in his voice. He was thumbing away the tears that were still streaming down Sasuke's face. The captive started leaning into the contact, only realizing he was doing it when Teara withdrew his hands suddenly and he almost pitched forward. He leaned back against the wall, swallowing hard. He wished he could see.

He heard footsteps walking away from him. Was... was Teara leaving again? The door slid open, and then slid closed, and then he heard the lock latching on the other side of the door. He didn't move for a long time, just sat there, head turned in the direction those sounds had been coming from. The shaking in his shoulders still hadn't stopped. He felt paralyzed.

Sasuke lowered his head after a long while, as miserable as he was angry with himself. He had given up way too easily. Teara had only needed to spend an hour's worth of time in the same room as him to make him surrender. How pathetic was that? Itachi wouldn't have given in so easily. He didn't think even Kaisuki would've given in that easily. He was clearly not as strong as he kept boasting.

His strength was meaningless as soon as his ability to fight was taken from him.

 _That's_ _ **pathetic**_ _, Sasuke._

…

When he'd first come to in whatever hotel that had been with Kisame nearby, his immediate thought was that he must have accidentally killed Sasuke. He had wracked his brain trying to remember everything that had happened, but the last five minutes of their fight had gone by in a blur. He couldn't remember anything.

Kisame had explained that he had gone to intercept the team of folks from Konoha who had shown up to retrieve Sasuke and that, while he'd been holding them off, a powerful shockwave of sorts had very rudely interrupted them, and it had very clearly been coming from the direction of the battlefield. It had also very clearly consisted of chakra that didn't belong to either of the Uchiha brothers. His partner had explained that he had immediately taken off to go and investigate, and that when he'd gotten there (with that team hot on his heels), Itachi was laying on the ground, thoroughly unresponsive, and Sasuke had been gone entirely.

It had been two and a half weeks since then. Sasuke was still missing. The team that he had seemingly been intending to bring with him to his battle against his brother had no idea where he was. Naruto and his team didn't seem to know either. Itachi had been tailing both teams interchangeably, hoping that he might find a clue. So far, nothing.

Itachi had disappeared off the radar as well. He'd ditched his Akatsuki cloak and had abandoned Kisame without a word. He sort of missed his partner, but there were more important things at hand. Because Teams 7 and Hebi had no idea where Sasuke was, Itachi was going to the last person he could think of who could help him look.

Assuming he could _find_ her.

He'd been following lead after lead after lead for four days, and it was bothering him that he wasn't spending that time looking for Sasuke directly. It was bothering him enough that he'd been pushing through anxiety attacks that seemed to hit him every few hours. The fact of the matter was, however, that he wasn't a sensory type. He alone would have a lot of trouble finding Sasuke if no one had seen him.

He had a feeling that Sasuke had been taken off that battlefield by someone, but he couldn't imagine who could _possibly_ be powerful enough to incapacitate both Itachi and Sasuke in one shot, without either of them seeing it coming.

He stood in a darkened alley across the street from a small diner, eyes trained on the door. This was the last place Kaisuki had been seen, according to the locals. Apparently she'd been staying in the little hamlet for a few days and had been frequenting that diner and a few other places while she was doing something in the general area. The diner was where she'd been sighted the most amount of times, so that was where he was starting.

He sighed, wondering how long he'd have to wait before he spotted her.

"What the _fuck_ are _you_ doing here?" He heard a very familiar voice speaking in very unfamiliar tones and turned to see who was talking to him.

"Looking for you," he replied once he'd confirmed that it was Kaisuki. Same purple scarf around her waist – the same one Itachi had given her when she was a child, same facial features. Everything checked out, except that her eyes were blue.

The spirit with the blue eyes glared at him with extreme hostility. "Why?"

"Is Kaisuki around?" He asked, getting straight to the point. "I need to speak with her."

The blue-eyed woman blinked, confused and irate. "You can talk to me. What the fuck do you want?"

Itachi resisted the strong urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he let out a long-suffering sigh. He saw her hands immediately curl into fists. "I'm looking for Sasuke," he stated bluntly. He was past the point of making things up. He wouldn't tell anyone of his mission to wipe out his family but he didn't have the time or energy to waste pretending that he wasn't looking for his little brother because he was concerned that something horrible had happened to him.

There was a second's pause before Kaisuki's eyes switched to their usual bright red. She looked suspicious. "Why?"

"Because he's been missing for over two weeks," the older Uchiha deadpanned. Had no one noticed just how far under the radar Sasuke had gone? Had nobody noticed that nobody else knew where Sasuke was? "I've known where he was at any and every point in time since I left Konoha, and yet now I can't find him anywhere." He pointedly ignored the fact that he sounded exactly as stressed out as he felt.

Kaisuki blinked. Now she looked slightly less suspicious and more confused, perhaps growing slightly concerned. "I... why does Sasuke's whereabouts matter to _you_ all of a sudden? I'm pretty sure that the last time you saw him you were-..."

"Kaisuki," he heaved an irate sigh, reaching up a hand and pinching the bridge of his nose. He did not have the patience for this. "I don't know where he is. I don't know why I can't find him. I also have no idea why I blacked out in the middle of our battle. All I know at this time is that Sasuke is missing and I'm not a sensory-type. I've already exhausted my resources. All I can do at this point is wander around, asking people if they've seen him. Otherwise I wouldn't be coming to you now. If you'd rather go looking for him on your own, fine. It'll give me peace of mind just knowing that you're looking as well."

The Yurei stared at him through his monologue, her face losing color. The last time he'd seen her, she had tried to persuade him to let her treat the terminal illness he'd been carrying around. She'd essentially cornered him while he was alone and tried to convince him, and it hadn't worked. He had every reason to imagine that she would be willing to help him directly now. She had tried to worm her way back into his life before. He was giving her an "in" now, simply because of necessity.

"You're... worried?" She slowly said, eyes somewhat glassy. She had to be talking to the spirits she harbored while she was talking to him.

"Yes," he replied simply, hoping that she could hear the sincerity in his voice.

Her eyes flickered to green. This was Izumi, he knew. He'd spoken to her briefly when Kaisuki had confronted him before. The irou-nin was scrutinizing him carefully. "This is a bit late for a change of heart, Itachi-kun." She challenged. They were incredibly suspicious of his intentions and it was getting annoying. He didn't blame them for it, but now was _really_ not a good time. "Why are you looking for him, really?"

Itachi stared at her stonily, feeling as though he were physically deflating. He didn't have _time_ for this.

"I'm not asking you to trust me or even believe my intentions are sincere," he was surprised by the wavering of his quietened voice. "I'm only asking you to help me find my little brother."

His chest felt tight. He was hyper-aware of how much time he was losing talking to them. Every second he lost was a second that could put Sasuke closer to death. Every minute could be another sixty seconds his little brother was being beaten and tortured. Every hour increased the likelihood that Itachi would never find him. Every day put Itachi himself that much closer to ripping out his hair and losing his mind.

His breathing was irregular and he couldn't steady it. He hadn't really been able to steady it in a while, though. Izumi looked slightly alarmed, but she didn't speak and Itachi was growing agitated. If they weren't willing to work with him, he wished they'd just say so. He was wasting time trying to convince them. He had already wasted four and a half days finding Kaisuki.

He was struggling to remain composed. "Kaisuki," he said tensely, and her eyes flashed to red again. "I hate to rush you into decision-making, but it's not like I have all afternoon. I spent four and a half days looking for you instead of looking for him, and that is too much time to have wasted."

That startled Kaisuki, very clearly. "You... you spent four days looking for me?"

" _Kaisuki_." He ground out, turning his gaze towards the sky. "You have thirty seconds, and then I'm leaving."

There was a long pause that stretched to about fifteen seconds, and he felt his stomach sinking. The unreadable look in Kaisuki's eyes was suggesting to him that she didn't believe him at all. In fact, he was getting the impression that she was jumping to the conclusion that he was looking for a Sasuke who was hiding from him, or something. As if Itachi was probably the one behind his little brother's disappearance.

Kaisuki opened her mouth to speak, but Itachi spoke before she could say anything. He hadn't felt so defeated in a long time. "At least start looking for him on your own, then," he requested in a subdued voice.

The Yurei blinked, startled, but he didn't give her a chance to say anything. He turned and stalked out of the alleyway, rounding the corner and using a variety of ledges to get to the roofs. From there, he took off. Kaisuki wasn't going to be useful, then. He could check in with her from afar in a few days to see if she had come across any leads. In the meantime, he'd just have to start from the relevant names and work backwards from them. People he knew Sasuke had slighted; Orochimaru and Kabuto's underlings; the Sound Village's inhabitants; old enemies of the Uchiha clan; people Itachi himself had slighted (that was a _long_ list); Akatsuki and their enemies (that was an even longer list); anyone who might have it out for Team 7...

He'd already been through most of those names, but he'd go through the list again, being even more thorough, and work backwards until either he ran out of people in the Shinobi Nations or he found Sasuke. Whichever came first.

His chest was aching, but he didn't slow down.


	3. Chapter 3

_**iii.**_

When he'd first gotten the letter from Kaisuki, he'd been furious. Then, he'd read it and he'd been bewildered and slightly anxious.

Naruto was pacing back and forth in the twelfth training grounds. Sakura was sitting on one of the wooden posts near him and Kakashi was leaning against another. They'd come home from another hunt for Sasuke prematurely because Kaisuki had said in her letter that it was extremely urgent and that it involved Sasuke. That had been enough to persuade Naruto to do what she'd asked, especially since it'd been almost three weeks since Sasuke and Itachi had had their fight and they still hadn't found anything.

"I wonder what she found," he muttered to himself. He looked up at Sakura, frowning. "Well, I guess the real question is; what did she find that she would want to tell us?"

Sakura sighed. "I don't know, Naruto."

He diverted his gaze elsewhere and sighed noisily. "It was a rhetorical question."

"Rhetorical or not, you're about to find out," Kakashi suddenly said, and Naruto turned around. He spotted her right away, and quickly realized that she was full-tilt _sprinting_ towards them. Within about thirty seconds she was coming to a stop, gasping for breath, her face flushed.

"Hey," Naruto greeted rather coldly. Kaisuki straightened up and glared at him, still panting.

"Y'know," she snapped angrily. "I could easily have decided to not tell you guys this, just considering how much of a prick _you've_ been, Naruto."

"Kaisuki," Sakura cut into the conversation, sounding weary. "I'm sorry about him. What's up?"

"Sasuke's missing slightly more than I think you guys have realized," Kaisuki told their pink-haired teammate directly, completely blowing off Naruto.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Naruto grunted irritably. Kaisuki shot him a very nasty look.

"Itachi came looking for me," she deadpanned.

Naruto blinked, "What? Why? And why is that relevant?"

"Shut the _fuck up_ and I'll tell you," she snarled, before turning back to Sakura and Kakashi. "He said that he's been keeping tabs on Sasuke since the day he left the village, and that he's _always_ known where Sasuke was at any point in time." She paused to take a few gasping breaths.

"Itachi has?" Kakashi repeated, sounding surprised. "Any particular reason why?"

"He didn't tell me that," Kaisuki replied, looking more and more conflicted. "He just said that he's been looking for Sasuke for two and a half weeks now and he hasn't been able to find him. He also said that he "wasted four days looking for me" so he could ask if I'd help him look. I... I mean, I'll look, of course, but I don't know why _he's_ looking, so I didn't really want to look with him."

"Understandably," Kakashi agreed.

"Yea," Kaisuki nodded. "But... he... he just looked so stressed out, I've never seen him look like that before."

"Like what?" Naruto wanted to know. He was beginning to feel mildly nauseous.

"Like he hasn't slept in two and a half weeks," Kaisuki replied, sounding distressed. "When I didn't tell him I would help him out, he looked at me like I'd told him his kitten died and... and he just asked me to look for Sasuke on my own, which is why I decided to come to you guys. He wouldn't have taken 'no' for an answer if he was putting on an act – he would've tried harder, and for a lot longer, to convince me. The whole conversation he just kept telling me that he didn't have time to chat with me. He seemed like he was thinking that Sasuke may have been kidnapped, but I don't know why he came to that conclusion. He didn't want to waste time explaining things to me, either."

Naruto felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Sasuke may have been kidnapped? He didn't know why Itachi would've thought something like that, but given the events surrounding the battle between the two brothers that had apparently not been finished, Naruto was willing to give that idea some credit. He'd gotten to the remains of that battlefield only a few minutes after Hoshigaki Kisame had. They'd arrived just in time to see Kisame lifting the older Uchiha out of a shallow pile of rubble, shortly before he'd taken off. Itachi had looked badly, badly beaten and he'd been wholly unconscious, but he'd been alive and at the scene of the crime.

Sasuke, on the other hand, had been nowhere.

"What do you guys think?" Kaisuki was asking, sounding uncertain. "I... I don't think I would trust the assumption that Sasuke's just hiding in a hole in the ground somewhere. I personally would rather assume the worst."

Naruto glanced back at his other two teammates. Kakashi looked grim. Sakura looked like she felt like she'd been punched in the gut too.

"I agree with you, Kaisuki," Sakura said quietly, sounding anxious. "I don't trust Itachi, but I trust your ability to read people. If he looked genuinely stressed out to you, I'll believe that something's wrong, even if I don't believe Itachi's intentions are sincere."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "It's bizarre that Itachi's looking for him," he stated. "But I'll let those questions lie until we've found Sasuke. If we run into Itachi again, perhaps we'll get the opportunity to talk to him. I think I'd like to see this stress for myself."

Naruto turned back to Kaisuki. "I thought you didn't care about what happened to Sasuke," he said. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

Kaisuki stared at him for a moment before her expression shifted into a _glare_. "Just because I wasn't willing to drag him home against his will when he's perfectly capable of making his own decisions, doesn't mean that I don't care about him. I was friends with Sasuke long before you even knew his name."

Naruto blinked, feeling insulted but deciding that she had a point and he didn't feel like fighting with her. He scowled anyway, though. "Fine, then," he said. "I'll go with the assumption that he's been kidnapped. Have you noticed anything in the last two weeks?"

At that question, Kaisuki looked away slightly guiltily. "I... yea," she replied quietly. "Saeka sensed him a few days ago, but I didn't go check it out because I didn't realize that something had happened to him." She sounded genuinely furious with herself, so Naruto decided that he didn't need to get mad at her for an honest mistake. She was helping now, when it _really_ counted, so he'd let it lie.

Naruto nodded, "Whereabouts? Can you take us there?"

Kaisuki bobbed her head, "Of course."

They immediately started walking back towards the village, picking up the pace until they were at a light jog. Naruto's stomach was doing acrobatics. He hadn't realized that Sasuke was _missing_ missing, either. Had Itachi really been the only person to notice that the younger Uchiha had fallen off the face of the planet? How close of an eye had the prodigy been keeping on his brother? Kaisuki had said that he'd admitted to keeping tabs on Sasuke for years, but _why_?

He decided to save those questions for later. He was sure they would run into Itachi eventually.

…

He had lost count of the days and that fact terrified him.

Sasuke was barely able to keep track of how long it would be until Teara came back. The white-haired man came by every three days, he knew, but he didn't know how many sets of three days had passed. He couldn't have told anyone how many times Teara had been through. He couldn't have told anyone how many times he'd been savagely beaten and tortured for being mouthy or doing something wrong or being too noisy when he was in pain or being too slow to move or not responding to a command fast enough...

" _Are you regretting it yet?"_

" _Have you learned your lesson?"_

" _Do not make me tell you again."_

Teara had started beating him for crying and for screaming. If he vocalized any kind of sound, he was, at the very least, backhanded so hard his head bounced off the wall. If Teara was feeling particularly irritable, he'd bury a knife in Sasuke's leg, or hip, or shoulder, or arm, or any other spot that wouldn't kill him. If he lost patience, he'd beat Sasuke until he got tired of it.

Every time he beat the Uchiha, he would come back twelve or so hours later and heal the damage he'd wrought upon his prisoner. He'd pet Sasuke's hair, wipe away the tears that would still be rolling down his face, speak softly to him with an empty, frosty tone. He'd leave Sasuke in a state of immeasurable agony, and then he'd come back and make it better.

The white-haired man would sometimes find ways to hurt him until he couldn't help but scream, and then he'd use that as an excuse to hurt him more. As though he were simply bored and torture was his favorite way to pass the time. Then, when he'd finally tire of it, he'd leave. If Sasuke had really infuriated him before he left, he'd leave the Uchiha in a state of agony for the entire three days before his scheduled return.

He felt like it had been months.

Sasuke didn't understand why he hadn't been found yet. He didn't know where he was, but clearly it wasn't underground. He could see the sunlight when the sun was up, after all. They had to be somewhere in the middle of nowhere or something, but he felt like someone ought to have found him by now.

" _No one's looking for you and even if someone did, they're not going to find you."_

Teara wasn't around, so Sasuke felt safe letting out a quiet, miserable sound. He didn't want to believe that _no one_ was looking for him. Naruto and his team had been looking for him since the day he'd left, three years ago. There was no way they would've stopped.

 _Unless they gave up._

If he'd been missing in action for six months (like he felt he had been), with no signs pointing to where he had gone, he supposed he could picture Naruto giving up. Especially if the guy didn't know that Sasuke had been taken hostage by some sadistic lunatic.

His lower lip trembled and he could feel his eyes stinging. He hated it. He hated everything about his current circumstances, and there was more to it than just the beatings. Teara had arranged matters so that Sasuke was completely dependent on him for everything from water and food to the use of a toilet. He hadn't realized there was another room in the place at all. Teara had returned again a day after he'd buried those knives into Sasuke's hip for the first time and given him access to a toilet (without untying him) and then dumped him in a cold shower (without taking off his clothes _or untying him)_ and cleaned up the mess of sweat and blood that had accumulated on his skin.

He had basically been rinsed off and then left again to air dry. That became the routine. Teara would come back every three days to give him food and water. Then, twelve hours later, he'd come back to heal any injuries he'd caused and then take Sasuke to the bathroom. The Uchiha had honestly never been so humiliated in his life.

He didn't even care who saved him at this point. He'd be happy to let Itachi (who was _dead_ ) rescue him if the man showed up with those intentions. Even if he just got Sasuke out of there for the express purpose of tearing out his eyes and killing him. He'd take death over another day of this.

He was chronically thirsty and hungry. He knew he was wasting away. He didn't know how much weight he'd lost because he couldn't see his own body, but he felt physically smaller. He felt how weak he'd gotten. The rope should have been loose enough by that point for him to get out of it, simply because of how much smaller he'd gotten, but it seemed like it hadn't gotten any looser at all and it was impossibly frustrating.

How much longer would he have to wait? How much longer would he be _able_ to wait?

He was beginning to drift off again when he heard the sound of the lock. Immediately, he looked up, feeling his heart rate spike. He was caught between relief that he was about to be fed and given water, and terror that he might screw something up and get another beating.

He could hardly breathe as he heard the sliding door open. Heavy footsteps crossed the room, stopping in front of him for a moment before he felt someone grip his bicep tightly and drag him upright. He didn't have the strength to pick himself up off the ground anymore. It expended too many calories and his muscles had atrophied to the point that he could not physically do it.

He felt weak and helpless and he'd never been so consistently miserable and frightened in his _life_.

Teara's hand briefly brushed against his cheek and he flinched, but the man just moved his hands behind Sasuke's head and untied the gag, pulling it out of his mouth. He could hear the water being poured, he could smell the onigiri that he was both tired of and looking forward to.

Water, two onigiri, more water, two more onigiri. That was it.

" _If you behave, maybe I'll bring you an extra one in the future."_

His eyes went from burning to actively watering. He wanted to go _home_.

Teara's hand pressed against the side of his face and he started, but didn't try to pull away. He wasn't supposed to do that. He held extremely still, his whole body positively rigid. He was almost holding his breath and his heart was hammering away in his chest. He was struggling to hold in the urge to whimper, and it was surprisingly difficult.

"You've been good the past couple of times I've come by," the sadist commented, not a hint of actual praise in his voice. Sasuke lowered his head slightly, trying to control the growing tremors in his shoulder.

He felt Teara's presence lean in and he had to really fight not to press himself into the wall when chilled lips pressed to his cheek, tracing a line of gentle pecks down his neck. His heart was hammering in his throat and he could not breathe. What was he doing? Why was Teara touching him? Why was he touching him like _this_? Last Sasuke had known, the white-haired man had been disgusted by the very air he breathed.

He sucked in a sharp breath when Teara dragged his tongue up the side of his throat, but he didn't whimper, or whine, or anything of the sort. He just tried to control his shuddering breaths pointlessly, tried to steady his worsening shaking. He could feel a hand running up his leg, stopping on his hip and squeezing, just short of hard enough to hurt.

He wanted to say something. He wanted to ask what Teara was doing, why he was doing it, and if he could please _stop._ He didn't know what the white-haired man was planning but he didn't like it at all. He didn't want the attention, even if it didn't hurt. He didn't like having this man's hands on him in any way, let alone in this fashion.

Both of Teara's hands were resting on his hips at this point, thumbs running back and forth over bones that felt like they were probably jutting out from how much weight he'd lost. He was still nuzzling against Sasuke's neck, kissing and then nipping, never once doing anything that hurt.

Teara hummed against his neck, sending a gentle vibrating through the Uchiha's throat. "This wall is going to get in my way," he muttered, clearly not talking to his captive. Sasuke stiffened. How was the wall going to get in his way? What was he going to do? He was beginning to actually panic

 _Please_ _ **don't**_ _._

His captor pulled back for only a moment before he grabbed Sasuke by his bicep and pulled him away from the wall, not quite _dropping_ him a couple feet away, but not really letting him down gently either. He felt like he was being treated like a literal _object_. As if Teara thought of him like a doll or pet that he could play with and train as he pleased.

He wanted to be sick, but he knew that he'd be _savagely_ beaten if he actually threw up.

A hand fell on his shoulder, pushing him onto his back. Laying on his back (and therefore his arms) was the most uncomfortable possible position he could be in, but Teara clearly didn't care about that sort of thing. A moment later, hands were touching him again, roaming freely and without inhibition. Sasuke was fairly certain that he was actively hyperventilating, beginning to wish that the psychopath would just go back to hurting him and then considering the option of swearing at his captor to persuade him to.

One of Teara's hands slid up his inner thigh, his thumb brushing over the sensitive skin directly between the Uchiha's legs. Sasuke flinched at the sensation, breath hitching on what would've been a whimper if he'd had any less self-control. Instead, he bit his tongue _hard_ and silenced his voice before any sound came out.

No one in his life had ever touched him like _this_ , but he wasn't so stupid or oblivious or naive that he couldn't figure out what was going on at this point. Calming himself down wasn't going to happen now. He almost couldn't breathe at this point from sheer fear. He didn't know how far Teara would go, but he _really_ didn't want to find out.

Not that he had any choice in the matter.

"If you can't relax," Teara whispered in his ear, slowly sliding a hand under Sasuke's clothes. "This is going to be _very_ painful for you."

Those words only served to exacerbate his tremors and further constrict his chest. All at once, he could feel hot tears spilling out of his eyes, and once they started he couldn't make them stop. As it was, it was taking every ounce of willpower to not succumb to the urge to start sobbing loudly. He knew it would hurt. He wasn't stupid.

But Teara wouldn't beat him in addition to... to _this,_ if he could just keep his mouth shut.

…

 _Everything and nothing was holding him down to the point that he couldn't move, and all he could hear was Sasuke_ _ **screaming**_ _._

 _There was darkness all around. Nothing to see anywhere. It was just him and an immeasurable weight keeping him from moving and the sound of his little brother shrieking and screaming and crying so loudly, Itachi was sure he had to be_ _ **dying**_ _._

 _He knew, in the back of his head, that he had to be dreaming. That only served to worsen his panic, though. If he was sleeping that meant he wasn't looking for Sasuke and if he wasn't looking for Sasuke those screams could very easily be accurate he had no way of knowing what was happening to Sasuke he had no way of knowing anything until he found him but how was he supposed to find him if he was_ _ **sleeping**_ _useless body wake up wake up_ _ **wake up**_ _you can't just give out on me now I don't have time for this_ _ **Sasuke**_ _doesn't have time for this wake up wake up..._

He felt a pressure on his arm and then someone shook him roughly. He hadn't even woken up completely before he had a kunai in his hand and was swinging, full force, with the absolute intent to _kill_.

The only reason he stopped was because he recognized the pair of bright red eyes that were staring at him, genuine fear highlighting their color, at the very last second. The kunai was inches from her throat. He blinked, lowering the weapon. He was gasping and feeling very much like he needed and wanted to throw up. He pressed a hand to his chest, letting out a particularly distressed wheeze. He could taste blood in his mouth but he swallowed it back down forcefully, which only served to worsen his nausea.

"I-Itachi?" Kaisuki spoke in a small, shaky voice. He could feel tremors wracking his body and he was _freezing._

He looked up and around, confused. Why had he been laying on the ground? He felt delirious. Was he sporting a fever? Sure seemed like it. He swallowed again, pressing a shaking hand to his forehead. Yes, that was definitely a high fever.

He dropped his hand. He still couldn't catch his breath.

 _Sasuke's screams were all he could hear..._

He coughed harshly. He wanted to get up but he knew for a fact that he was going to faint again if he did. So he looked over at Kaisuki instead, his eyes hooded and his head aching. "Fancy... meeting you here."

She looked stricken. Then, she glanced over her shoulder and Itachi realized that she wasn't alone. Team 7 was with her – Naruto, the pink-haired one, and Kakashi. She must've gone to them about Sasuke, then. Or at least, he sure hoped that was what she had done.

Kakashi looked extremely alarmed. Naruto's face was white but his eyes were glaring. The pink-haired one... _Sakura_. That was her name. Sakura looked highly anxious and possibly angry. None of them looked as upset as Kaisuki.

The Yurei turned back to him, her eyes flashing to Izumi's familiar green. "Itachi-kun, you're extremely sick."

Itachi stared at her stonily. "Tell me something I don't know," he replied flatly, his voice somewhat raspy. Was that really what he sounded like? If he'd been talking to himself, he would have been concerned, too.

Izumi blinked, looking at him with real worry in her eyes. "We need to take out that fever-..."

"I don't have time for that," he told her. "We've been over this."

Her eyes flashed blue for just an instant before they were green again. "You're not going to find him if you die of a high fever that you refused to take care of before it got out of hand," Izumi told him sternly.

He diverted his gaze back to the ground. He still couldn't catch his breath.

"I don't have..." he hadn't meant to speak as quietly as he did, but his voice came out as almost a mumble. He clenched his jaw momentarily to hold in the urge to actually start crying ( _again_ ). "He's... he's been missing for over a month."

"And he's not going to be any less missing if you _die_." Izumi reiterated.

Itachi stared at his hands. He felt so defeated. It'd been five and a half weeks. That was a long time for someone to be missing. There was no logical reason to assume that Sasuke hadn't already been buried somewhere, but he had no intention of ceasing his search until he at least found a body.

 _Sasuke's screams were all he could hear..._

He took in a shuddering breath. He was getting a little tired of Sasuke ruining his life and his psyche.

"What are you even doing here?" He asked softly, still not looking up. He could see Izumi digging through Kaisuki's backpack out of the corner of his eye but he didn't say anything about it.

Izumi paused momentarily, but she didn't get a chance to speak before Kakashi did, "Looking for Sasuke and finding you, instead." He stated coldly. "You seem a little under the weather, Itachi."

Itachi resisted the urge to glare murderously at the silver-haired man, instead choosing to not even look up or acknowledge Kakashi's words at all. He didn't have the energy for any of this. He felt a hand close around his arm and he didn't so much as flinch when Izumi jabbed him with a hypodermic and administered whatever antibiotics or antipyretics she'd pulled out the Yurei's bag.

She pulled away and he moved to get up, " _Sit down._ " The irou-nin commanded, and he looked over at her with a dead, hollow feeling in his chest. "Or I will put you out of commission until I decide you're healthy enough to resume your search."

He closed his eyes, placing a shaky hand over them. He probably ought to eat again at some point. "It's not..." He let out a frustrated sigh and dropped his hand, and the next thing he knew he was snarling at her, pent up stress from the past five weeks coming out in a barely controlled burst of fury. "Why, exactly, do you _care_ what I do? Last I heard, I'm the most wanted criminal on this _continent_ and none of you want anything to do with me, so why are you so concerned with my welfare all of a sudden? Is it because I was the first person to notice that my little brother is _missing_ , or is it because you think _I'm_ the reason he's missing?"

By the end of his tirade, he could hardly breathe but he didn't care. Izumi appeared to have lost her voice, but she lifted a hand and reached out as if to touch him, perhaps to offer him some form of comfort, but he jerked away and then picked himself up off the ground. He didn't want anything further to do with them at that point, and he'd be _damned_ if Izumi was going to lay a hand on him again. She – as well as the rest of them – were _wasting his time_.

More importantly, they were wasting Sasuke's time.

The Yurei stood up with him, her eyes back to their usual vivid red, her gaze hardened. Evidently, Kaisuki hadn't lost _her_ voice. "Firstly, I _never_ said that I thought you were behind his disappearance," she snapped furiously. "Secondly, who the _fuck_ are you, to try and play the martyr? After all that you've done to him, you have _no right_ to even be looking for him! You traumatized him beyond repair, and now you're trying to tell me that you gave a fuck about him all along? When you've done everything in your power to pick up his broken fucking pieces and put him back together after the one person he trusted more than anyone _betrayed him_ -..."

Before Kaisuki could finish her rant, Itachi backhanded her so hard, her head swung to the side and she stumbled. It had taken a lot of willpower to not full-on punch her as hard as he could (which would likely have broken her jaw). The rest of Team 7 lurched forward but stopped for some reason. Itachi wasn't sure if it was because they remembered that he could easily kill all of them, or if it was because his eyes were visibly watering, or if it was because Kaisuki made some gesture with her hand.

He found he didn't care.

"When you give up your whole life for someone that everyone thinks you hate, for someone you know wants nothing more than to see you dead, _**then**_ _you can talk to me about how much I care about my little brother_!" He raged at her, voice increasing in volume throughout his outburst.

Kaisuki was stunned, her hand on her cheek and her eyes wide and watering as she stared at him with something he didn't have the energy to decipher. Itachi only stood there, chest heaving and eyes burning, for another two seconds before he he turned around and jumped up into the trees, taking off. His chest was on _fire_ and his head was pounding but he absolutely _did not_ care. He'd plodded on for miles in significantly worse shape. He'd been in _battle_ in significantly worse shape.

It was a painful struggle to hold back the need to have a nervous breakdown. He just kept reminding himself that Sasuke didn't have time for him to waste.

 _Please stay alive for me. Just a bit longer, Sasuke._


	4. Chapter 4

_**iv.**_

 _Please just_ _ **kill me**_ _._

" _Clearly I need to educate you more thoroughly, since you still haven't learned to_ _ **shut your mouth**_ _."_

He could _barely_ breathe. So many of his ribs had been fractured and cracked, inhaling was literally excruciating. He'd been trying to index his injuries but the pain was so blinding he couldn't keep count and _everything_ hurt to the point that he couldn't tell what was an injury and what was just soreness and what was just radiating pain. Teara had sunk multiple knives into him (one of them serrated), carving through bone and leaving one wedged between the joint in his shoulder. He didn't know how long the white-haired man had been gone but it seemed like an eternity. He was pretty sure it'd been at least a couple of days. He couldn't even seem to remain unconscious, and he definitely couldn't fall asleep.

He was positive that his hip was broken again. His shoulder had a knife in it and had to have been ruined to the point that repairing it back to full functionality wouldn't be possible. Teara had beaten him, _tortured him_ , for _hours_. He hadn't seemed inclined to leave ( _to_ _ **stop**_ ) until he'd jammed his knife into Sasuke's shoulder the last time and the Uchiha didn't scream ( _couldn't scream_ ), didn't vocalize his pain at all.

His eyes were burning and then they were slowly leaking tears again, but his voice still wouldn't come out. Even though Teara wasn't there. He didn't want to make any noise anymore. At all. He knew that his captor was gone but he didn't want to risk it. What if he was still sobbing uncontrollably when that sadist returned? What if he couldn't get himself under control fast enough after he came back?

He was fairly certain that he'd completely lost his voice, anyway.

" _Why are you crying? It's just sex, you child."_

" _F-... fuck_ _ **you**_ _, you sick son of a_ _ **bitch**_ _!"_

That was the last thing he'd said to Teara.

 _Why did I have to say that?_

He remained completely limp, didn't even flinch, when he heard the sound of the door being unlocked, opening, and closing. Familiar, heavy boot steps crossed the floor at their usual, steady pace. They stopped about a foot away from him, and he still didn't move. He _couldn't_ move.

He felt the knife in his shoulder shift slightly, sending a blinding pain down his arm and across his chest and making him gasp through the gag, seconds before Teara ripped the blade out wordlessly. He wheezed past the cloth in his mouth and coughed harshly a few times, but still didn't vocalize an actual sound.

It took Teara at least an hour to heal all of the damage he'd caused. Sasuke remained limp throughout it. When the white-haired man was done, he picked up his motionless prisoner and carried him into the other room, practically dropping him in the tub. A moment later, he was hit by _freezing_ water that quickly turned scalding hot.

It hurt but he didn't make a sound.

Teara used his hands to scrub the dried, crusty blood off his skin, rinsing his hair thoroughly. His touch was rough and harsh and Sasuke was getting the impression that he was still angry. That was weird, because Teara didn't stay angry with him for more than the twelve hours it usually took him to return. That wasn't something that happened. Clearly he'd infuriated the guy a lot more than he'd realized. His heart jumped into his throat.

Once the bathroom run was finished, he was dropped back on the wooden floor in the middle of the main room. He was freezing. It wasn't cold in the room, but he was soaked and malnourished. He'd been cold for... probably weeks, at this point. He curled into himself, shivering silently.

Teara didn't let him do that for long, though.

He felt a hand grip his shoulder and roll him onto his back, another roughly grabbing his throat. "I'm sure you've noticed that I'm still pissed," Teara growled. "So I advise you _behave_."

Sasuke went still for only a few seconds before he nodded mutely, knowing that he'd regret it if he didn't respond fast enough. His breathing was shallow and close to hyperventilation and his heart felt like it would give out at any moment. His lower lip was trembling again and tears were already spilling out of his eyes behind the blindfold. As soon as he nodded, Teara's hands were on him, pulling at his wet clothes without a second thought.

He wanted to _die._

 _Please,_ _ **please**_ _just kill me._

…

He felt like he was losing his mind.

Itachi had searched the same fifty mile radius, a couple hundred miles north of Konoha, probably a thousand times. The only reason he hadn't moved on from the area – despite being positive that he'd searched every square centimeter of it – was because he kept picking up on Sasuke's chakra signature. He'd feel it for a few seconds, seemingly miles and miles away, and then it would be gone. He didn't even understand how he kept picking up on it, as he wasn't a sensory-type shinobi and it felt like it was coming from _miles_ away – usually more than twenty. He shouldn't have been able to feel it.

Between the raging fevers that came and went as he continued to thoroughly neglect himself ( _I can eat and sleep_ _ **after**_ _I find him_ ) and the repeated panic attacks that _would not_ leave him alone, he genuinely felt like he was going insane. He kept waking up on the ground with fevers so high he was barely able to see well enough to find the fast-acting antipyretics he'd made a point to get after Izumi had warned him that he would burn himself out with a fever. He knew that he was walking a very thin line between seriously ill and dead, but he couldn't make himself stop searching for more than the amount of time it took him to wake up after collapsing.

He never remembered passing out. He never even remembered feeling feverish beforehand. He was lucky to still be alive, considering how infamous he was and how vulnerable he was.

His chest constantly ached at this point, but he religiously took the medication for _that_ problem so that it didn't get too out of hand. He hadn't stopped coughing up blood by any means, but for whatever reason the disease hadn't decided to take a turn for the worse (yet), so he more or less ignored it. He'd take the time to spit up blood when he needed to, but he did not let himself stop and catch his breath for more than three minutes, no matter how much pain he was in.

All of that, however, didn't matter to him. He was keeping himself alive enough to keep moving and that was it. Any time spent on himself was wasted time he could've spent looking for Sasuke. He didn't care what kind of condition he was in as long as he could keep walking, as long as he could keep searching.

He came to an abrupt halt, pulled violently out of his thoughts for the thousandth time, when he felt Sasuke's chakra signature. Due west, between sixty and seventy miles away. It was clearer than he'd felt it since his little brother had gone missing and, as he was memorizing where it was coming from, he realized that it wasn't disappearing in seconds like it usually did.

Itachi knew he didn't have a lot of time before it went away again, so he turned in the direction it was coming from and took off at a dead sprint. He jumped into the trees, using his chakra to propel himself forward at nearly inhuman speeds. His heart was racing and he felt like he was coming close to another panic attack, but he pushed through it. Now was probably the _worst_ possible time for him to be wheezing around anxiety.

The feeling of Sasuke's chakra was still there after a good five minutes of leaping through the trees. He didn't know why, but he decided that it didn't matter. The longer the feeling stayed, the closer he'd be able to get and the easier it would be for him to track down the exact spot it was coming from.

He knew he'd been through the area he was heading to a hundred and ten times. He knew he'd combed through that part of the woods as thoroughly as was physically possible, specifically because he'd felt Sasuke's chakra coming from the general area so many times. He was always too far away to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from, and it was always gone long before he got there.

There wasn't a genjutsu around it, though. He would've seen it. He'd had his Sharingan, as half-blind as it was, to aide him in making sure there wasn't some form of illusion, and there _hadn't been._ There was no reason for Sasuke's chakra signature to be coming from that area, but he searched thoroughly every time he felt it. It really just didn't make any sense.

It was another five to eight minutes before Sasuke's chakra signature flickered a few times and then disappeared like a candle going out. He didn't stop moving, even though his heart leaped clear into his throat from fear of the absolute worst.

He tried to reason with himself ( _this has happened a hundred times so why are you assuming it's different now?_ ) but it didn't help at all.

…

He felt numb.

When Teara was finished with him, he - as usual - took about three minutes to clean up his mess and replace his prisoner's clothes where they had been, and then left without a word. Sasuke didn't know why he'd been sort of hoping that the white-haired man would stick around longer (he _never_ did), but he found himself feeling agonizingly lonely only a few minutes after his captor left.

His eyes were still streaming tears and his voice still wasn't working. He was sore and tired and he wanted nothing more than to be killed. Even if it was while being tortured, even if it was because he was in so much pain his heart gave out, he didn't care at this point. He just wanted to die.

He no longer had the strength to sit himself up and lean against the wall, and Teara had left him in the middle of the room anyway. Between being starved and being unable to move because of the rope binding him, he was positive that he had lost every ounce of muscle in his body. He didn't think he'd be able to walk at this point. It had to have been months by now. It felt like it'd been years, but he was sure that was an exaggeration his mind had come up with because of how miserable he was.

 _Well, pretty sure._

He had considered just refusing to eat or drink anything until he died of dehydration, but he knew that wouldn't work. Whether Teara beat him into submission or forced a feeding tube down his throat, he knew it wouldn't work..

If he could've spoken, he would've tried to make Teara so angry he accidentally killed his prisoner, but nothing he had said since he'd been kidnapped had ever infuriated that sadist enough to come even close to actually killing him. Sasuke couldn't tell if he was genuinely enjoying what he was doing to the Uchiha or if he just loathed his captive that much and wanted to make him suffer in every possible way for as long as he could keep him alive.

He was trapped in the most miserable possible situation and it was looking like he was never going to be able to escape.

…

It wasn't until late morning the following day when he reached the area Sasuke's chakra signature had come from. He was pretty sure it had been closer to seventy miles, but he'd been running for about two-thirds of the trip, total. He'd ended up traveling for a solid twenty-six hours, refusing to stop unless he absolutely had to.

Itachi walked through the forestry, Sharingan activated, scanning the area thoroughly. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary. There wasn't a genjutsu. There wasn't anything, but he knew he was within a hundred yards of where Sasuke's chakra signature had been.

He wanted to cry. How many times was he going to search this area, anyway? There was nothing here. Someone was probably messing with him, or he was so deranged and tired and anxious that he'd been hallucinating. What was going on made no logical sense. At all.

 _Clearly I've-..._ Before he could finish his train of thought, he heard a sound, like someone walking through the shrubbery. He blinked, startled, before he realized that, whoever that was, he couldn't sense their chakra. From as close as they seemed to be, he _definitely_ should've been able to sense them.

He took several steps backwards and turned away, taking long strides up a tree. He stopped partway up, where he was completely concealed, and crouched down while still sticking to the side of the tree. If he tried getting on the branches, the tree was going to shake and attract attention to him.

He peered through the branches for about a minute before the person he'd been hearing stepped through his field of vision. His hair was long and white and held back in a loose ponytail that was distressingly similar to his own. His eyes were dark blue and he looked _furious_. His expression was mostly still and blank, but Itachi recognized the smoldering look in the man's eyes as one he himself often wore.

He watched the man stalk past him, hands buried in his pockets. He didn't look to be armed at all. Itachi's brow furrowed in suspicion. He kept an eye on the man – moving around to the other side of the tree and everything – until he was completely out of sight, before carefully and silently dropping to the ground.

He stared out in the direction that man had been coming from, eyes narrowed. He still didn't see any genjutsu. Itachi started off, retracing the man's steps as best he could. He didn't look like a shinobi so much as he looked like a civilian. He hadn't been armed, his chakra was evidently nonexistent if Itachi couldn't sense it ( _that doesn't seem right_ ), and his clothes didn't look suited for fighting or anything else that required a bit of movement.

He walked for about five minutes, looking around carefully, trying to figure out what he'd missed. The forest seemed to be much denser in the area he was walking through, and he faintly remembered having to cut around all over the place to get around them. He felt like he was missing something.

His Sharingan still wasn't picking up on anything, but he had a strange feeling that he hadn't had any of the times he'd been through before. There was a prickly feeling in the air, almost like static against his skin. It _felt_ like a massive amount of chakra in the atmosphere, but at the same time it didn't really feel like chakra at all.

It was extremely odd, because he'd never felt it any of the other six hundred times he'd been through the area.

He didn't know why his Sharingan would've failed him, but it couldn't hurt to see what happened. He closed his eyes and took a breath, concentrating for only a few seconds to interrupt his chakra flow briefly.

He opened his eyes and froze. The dense forestry was extremely thinned out now, a lot of the tall flora moved around. And, through the trees, he could see a very small... he wouldn't have called it a house, it looked more like a hut. He couldn't feel any chakra coming from inside, but for all he knew there was a corpse in there. For all he knew, there was something impeding his ability to sense whoever was in there, just like there had been something preventing his Sharingan from picking up the genjutsu.

He swallowed hard and walked through the trees, walking around the place. It appeared to have exactly two rooms. There was a small window on every wall, basically along the roof, and a sliding door that was padlocked shut. The door also had notes all over it – ones specifically made to completely conceal chakra.

There wasn't a key around the door, so he pulled out a senbon needle and stepped up to the padlock, taking a few minutes to get it open. He pulled the lock off the door and dropped it in the grass next to him, his heart hammering in his throat.

 _Please, please,_ _ **please**_ _..._

…

When he heard the door unlocking again, Sasuke was struck with panic.

 _Why is he back so soon?_

It was difficult, but he curled into himself, beginning to tremble. His eyes were already burning. It hadn't even been twenty minutes. Had he decided to kill him after all? Or had he decided that he needed and wanted to punish his prisoner further? Or had he not been leaving at all, just going to get something?

He angled his face towards the floor as if it would hide him, his shaking worsening. The door slid open, and he immediately noticed that it was slower than usual. Was that... actually Teara? It had taken him almost thirty seconds to get the lock undone. Usually he did it in under ten seconds. He always opened the door at the same pace, and as whoever that was started crossing the room, he found that they were walking a _lot_ faster.

He wasn't sure if it was someone here to rescue him or someone here to kill him or anything, really. For all he knew that _was_ Teara, and he was hastily moving his captive before someone found him. He heard one of this person's knees crack as they crouched down, and that struck him as odd too. Teara's knees didn't crack. _Ever_.

He flinched violently and cringed away when he felt a hand touch his shoulder. Whoever it was, they hushed him in the quietest voice, gently touching his shoulder again. He heard a sound remarkably similar to someone beginning to cry, but they were still very quiet.

His level of confusion was rising exponentially. He didn't know anyone who would have been looking for him, found him, and then began to cry, but still remain extremely quiet. Naruto and the rest of his team from Konoha would have hollered his name, Kaisuki probably wouldn't have been looking for him, and Karin would've yelled louder than Naruto even if Suigetsu and Juugo didn't.

There was a sound of metal touching metal and he stiffened, "It's alright, hold still, I'm not going to hurt you." He froze, going completely still, at the voice that spoke to him. "I'm going to take off the blindfold first and work my way down."

Even with that voice being thick and shaky as he was evidently barely choking back tears, Sasuke didn't for a _second_ mistake the sound of Itachi's voice.

 _Impossible_.

His eyebrows came together in confusion ( _you're_ _ **dead**_ ), but he nodded slightly ( _ **please**_ _save me_ ), eyes beginning to water. He wanted to sob in relief but he wasn't sure he trusted that it wasn't a dream. Itachi was supposed to be dead. It didn't make sense for him to be here now. Maybe Sasuke had passed out. Maybe he'd wake up any minute. He'd had dreams like this before. He usually woke up when the blindfold came off and it was actually just Teara.

He felt Itachi's finger slide under the blindfold carefully, giving him just enough space to cut through the cloth. As soon as it came off, he was suddenly able to feel Itachi's chakra. So it had been the blindfold that was impeding his ability to sense chakra? He went to open his eyes but the amount of light he was met with was _blinding_. That hadn't been a problem in his dreams. The bubble of hope that was expanding in his chest was becoming unbearable.

"Okay, now the gag," Itachi said quietly, shakily, before quickly slicing through that cloth and pulling it away. "I'm going to roll you towards me so I can get at this rope."

He nodded again, still working on getting his eye to adjust. Itachi placed his hand on his shoulder and his side and slowly tilted him forward until he was resting at an angle against his brother's knees. Itachi wasted absolutely no time going at the rope, slicing through it in about four different places and pulling on one, and the next thing he knew, it suddenly loosened. He let out a relieved sigh that hitched on the sobs that wouldn't come out. He still couldn't speak.

Itachi rolled him onto his back, being sure to get his arms out from under him and crossing them over his stomach, then taking about a minute to get the tape off of them. Sasuke's shoulders were _aching_ and it was such a huge relief but the sudden movement was making his upper extremities feel like they were seizing up. Itachi moved down to the ropes binding his ankles together and deftly sliced through that as well before he moved back to where he'd been. He dug his arm underneath Sasuke, who was actively shivering and shaking, and lifted him upright. His brother made a soft sound of distress, hugging him to his chest.

"I'm so sorry it took me so long to find you," Itachi whispered. Sasuke felt both numb and like bursting into tears. He didn't want to believe that this was really happening, especially since it was _Itachi_ , but he wanted to believe _so badly_ that this tragedy was what brought his brother back to him.

Itachi gave him one last squeeze and pulled back, still supporting him. He couldn't hold himself up at all, but like this he could see his brother's face. He looked like he'd seen hell. "We can't stay here for obvious reasons," he muttered, and Sasuke noticed how raspy and hoarse Itachi's voice sounded. "You..." There was a pause, and Itachi took in another shaky breath and looked down at him with an unreadable look on his face. "You can't move much on your own, can you?"

Sasuke was still for a few seconds before he shook his head mutely, throat tightening. Itachi hummed in acknowledgment and looked towards the door, clearly pondering the best way to carry him. "Alright, bear with me here." He said. After much maneuvering and the use of one of the shorter lengths of rope, Itachi tied Sasuke's forearms together so that they wouldn't move from around his neck, taking care to make sure he didn't tie it too tightly. It didn't hurt at all, though his elbows did not approve of still being bent.

Itachi hoisted him onto his back and stood, stalking out of the hut immediately. Sasuke's heart was in his throat. He wouldn't be able to believe it was real until he was at least miles away from the place and he still hadn't woken up. He probably wouldn't believe it until he'd gone to bed and woken up outside of that room, preferably in a bed somewhere.

"We're going to be traveling for a few hours," Itachi told him as he jumped up into the trees and started moving. "So if you can, you should try to sleep."

Sasuke nodded against Itachi's shoulder but he wasn't sure if his brother felt it. Itachi didn't say anything else, and he was _so_ exhausted simply from being untied, from not being in such an uncomfortable position anymore. It wasn't long before his eyes were slipping shut on their own accord.

…

Kaisuki helped them look, but it didn't help their strained relationship at all. If anything, her level of stress was making the fighting worse.

Naruto stared at the back of the girl's head. Well, more like glared. She was reading a map, as she had been periodically for days. When they stopped, she'd mark where they had been, where they were, and how they had gotten there. She was being so thorough, Naruto wasn't sure when she found the time to sleep.

 _It's possible that she's not_ , he thought to himself, peering through the trees for _anything_. Ever since their encounter with Itachi, she seemed to be _driven_ in a way that she just hadn't been before. He'd been like that at one point, but he hadn't walked through every patch of trees to do it, he'd just waited for leads. He hadn't used a map and marked where he was going, he'd just forgotten where he'd been and who he'd already talked to. He hadn't been this thorough, he'd only had the drive.

" _When you give up your whole life for someone that everyone thinks you hate, for someone you know wants nothing more than to see you dead,_ _ **then**_ _you can talk to me about how much I care about my little brother!"_

He didn't like the implications of what Itachi had said. Although, he wasn't sure if he even believed the older of the two Uchiha brothers. What he'd said didn't make sense, but he had looked so desperate and miserable and _sick_ that Naruto felt like he couldn't possibly have been acting. Itachi was an excellent liar, but Naruto couldn't imagine him faking his search for Sasuke to point that he gave himself a _fever_.

" _You don't fucking get it, Naruto!"_

He scowled. Kaisuki appeared to be taking what Itachi had said very seriously, and it seemed to be stressing her out. He didn't understand why she was letting that psychopath get to her. Itachi had never shown any signs of caring for Sasuke after the massacre, until now. He had always shown nothing but disinterest and annoyance, like Sasuke's very existence was a bother to him.

 _But,_ he thought before he could stop himself. _He's never actually gone to kill Sasuke, and he's had plenty of time and opportunities to._

That didn't excuse nearly a decade of tormenting his little brother, though. Seriously, who did that?

Kaisuki slowed to a stop out of the blue and looked skyward. Naruto stared at her for a moment before looking up as well. There was nothing there.

"What?" Naruto grunted. "Is Saeka sensing someone in a flying chariot?"

Kaisuki didn't so much as look at him. "That's definitely Kuroi."

"Itachi's crow?" Kakashi asked for clarification, looking to the sky as well. Sure enough, after a few seconds of watching the sky, a large black bird flew over the trees. Kaisuki watched it circle for a moment before it started dropping, and she lifted an arm for it to land on. Naruto stared, feeling queasy. Itachi was contacting them now? Since when, and _why_?

Kuroi landed on Kaisuki's wrist, and she used one hand to untie the red thread that was holding a scroll to the birds leg. She held Kuroi to her shoulder, and he obediently hopped off her wrist. Then, she opened the scroll. Naruto could just barely see over her shoulder, and the first and only thing he could read was a large, thickly written sentence:

 **DO NOT RESPOND**

His eyebrows came together. Kaisuki rolled the scroll back up for a moment and tucked it under her arm before carefully reaching up and blindly (but skillfully) tying the red thread in a bow on the bird's leg.

"You can go back now," Kaisuki said. Kuroi looked at her, cawed loudly once, and then jumped off her shoulder and flew away. The Yurei took the scroll and reopened it, eyes scanning the letter. Naruto wanted to read over her shoulder but he had a feeling she'd punch him if he did. So he, Sakura, and Kakashi all waited with somewhat baited breath.

Kaisuki's eyes had widened and it looked like she was rereading the same sentence over and over. "What?" Naruto asked, his stomach flipping.

Kaisuki didn't look up. "Itachi..." she began quietly. "Itachi found Sasuke."

Naruto was immediately somewhere along the lines of furious and disbelieving. " _What_? Where?! How?!" He demanded, unsure of why he was so angry.

"He was..." she swallowed, her face turning the color of sour milk. Naruto's eyebrows came together. He was beginning to grow anxious.

" _What_ , Kaisuki?" Sakura asked, and Naruto glanced at her. She looked pale and she was clenching and unclenching her fists. Kakashi looked grim, but he was silent as the grave as he waited for the verdict. Naruto clicked his tongue impatiently. Kaisuki was staring, glassy eyed, at the scroll. Then, after a very long pause, her eyes flashed to blue.

Khrai looked _pissed_.

"He was securely tied up, blindfolded, and gagged in a very small house of sorts a couple hundred miles north of Konoha. He was in there, like that, for the entire three and a half months." She was probably reading almost word for word what Itachi had written. Naruto's stomach plummeted. "His muscles… have atrophied to the point that he's not strong enough to walk, or even sit up, by himself. He's covered in new scars that point very clearly to extensive torture and beatings, which appears to have rendered him completely..." she paused, gritted her teeth. "Completely mute."

Naruto's eyes widened in horror. _Mute_? Sasuke was... Sasuke had been put through so much torment that... that he'd been rendered...

Khrai had continued reading but had stopped speaking. She was staring at the scroll, frozen solid, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. He watched as she pressed a hand to her mouth, and for a moment Naruto thought she was going to cry. Her jaw was working, blue eyes showing a tempest of emotion.

"Khrai," Kakashi called, sounding wary and worried. "Can you... are you alright?"

Her face had lost what little color Kaisuki's skin naturally held, which wasn't much. Then, after a few more seconds, her expression shifted to one of near-blackout rage. Her hand came away from her mouth and Naruto could see that she was struggling to keep from clenching her fists around the letter and destroying it.

"It appears as though he's also been..." she said in a quiet, strained voice. "He's also been raped."

Naruto froze at that. His stomach twisted and he had to swallow hard to get the bile that rose up his throat to go back down. He felt numb. He opened his mouth to say something, to ask some question, but he lost his words before he'd even been able to discern what he was trying to say.

"By his clearly male kidnapper, likely more than once." Khrai continued after a brief pause. The blue-eyed spirit sounded disgusted, furious, and like she wanted to cry and _kill. "_ He's become extremely adverse to touch, but Itachi was able to help him change his clothes, which is the only reason he knows. He hasn't... he hasn't asked Sasuke about it yet."

Naruto could hardly breath and his fists were clenched so tightly, his nails were digging into his palms. He felt physically ill and it was taking a lot of compulsive swallowing and teeth clenching to keep from heaving up what he'd eaten for breakfast.

"O-oh, oh no..." Sakura was whispering past her hands, her eyes filled with tears when Naruto looked over at her. Her face was ashen and she looked just as nauseous as the rest of them. When he looked at Kakashi, his jounin team leader had lowered his head and pressed his palm over his eyes.

Naruto's eyes were burning with a mixture of emotional agony ( _I should've been the one to find him long before now, oh my_ _ **god**_ ) and frustration ( _how is it that his psychopath brother was looking harder than we were?_ ). He didn't know why he was angry that Itachi had found Sasuke instead of Team 7 finding Sasuke, but he tried to quell it by being angry at the person who had hurt Sasuke in the first place. Besides, the point was that the younger Uchiha had been found, he kept reminding himself. It didn't really help.

"When... what is Itachi going to do with him?" Naruto asked hesitantly, unsure of whether he should be asking when Itachi would bring Sasuke home or if he should be asking what horrible plans the older Uchiha had for his teammate. Khrai was still reading but she looked up at Naruto, her eyes haunted.

She looked back to the letter after a couple of seconds. "He said that he's not in any shape to be transporting Sasuke anywhere, since he's rather sick and almost definitely couldn't fight anyone in his current state of health." She explained, eyes narrowing as she continued reading the letter. "He's keeping them both hidden until Itachi's recovered enough to feel safe bringing Sasuke back to Konoha."

Naruto blinked, startled. Itachi was planning on bringing Sasuke back to Konoha? No, he wouldn't believe _that_ until he saw it. He didn't know how long it'd be until then, but if he didn't hear anything in a few weeks, he would go looking for them. He didn't know exactly how sick Itachi had made himself, but he didn't expect it to take him more than two weeks to be fully recovered.

"He also says," Khrai continued, "That he doesn't want us to ever, ever, _ever_ answer his letters, but he'll try to keep us updated."

There was a pause as Khrai rolled the scroll back up and swung Kaisuki's bag off her shoulders so she could put it in one of the pockets. Naruto was staring at her. She looked angry and upset, but she didn't look like she was the least bit worried about leaving Sasuke with Itachi for an indeterminate amount of time.

"Is it a good idea to..." Sakura began slowly, sounding uncertain about what she was saying. "To, um... leave Sasuke in Itachi's care? I mean... considering everything..."

Kakashi dropped his hand, and Naruto looked over at him again. He looked gaunt all of a sudden. "There's not a whole lot we can do about it even if it isn't a good idea, Sakura," he said wearily. "We have no idea where they are, and there are few people on this planet who are as good at disappearing as Itachi."

Sakura still looked upset and anxious. "I just... I don't want anything _else_ to happen to him..." She whispered.

"Nothing's going to happen to Sasuke," Kaisuki's vocal tone was distinctive, even if she sounded hollowed out. "Itachi's not going to hurt him."

Naruto frowned. He didn't understand why Kaisuki was so trusting of the older Uchiha brother. Itachi was an enemy. He'd been an enemy for years, and yet Kaisuki had _never_ quite treated the situation like that. She had never seemed to see him as the horrible person he was. She'd told Sasuke off about his quest for vengeance more times than Naruto could've counted, and it had resulted in their friendship dissolving.

" _You don't fucking get it, Naruto!"_

She was right. He didn't.


End file.
